The means necessary to keep waves of rescue workers fresh and on the job when disaster strikes were on full display at the McComb Fire Department on Parklane Road on Wednesday.
The Department of Homeland Security and the Mississippi Logistical Task Force 4 showcased its wares to local city and county officials, as well as authorities from Natchez and Brookhaven.
“We are the only one in the state and one of very few in the entire nation,” Pike County Civil Defense Director Richard Coghlan said of the task force. “We can activate, leave Pike County and be set up anywhere in Mississippi within eight hours.”
The local logistical task force assists counterparts from other parts of the state that conduct search-and-rescue missions during disasters.
These groups are capable of swiftwater rescue, dive rescue, overland search and rescue, urban search and rescue and hazardous material response.
“Our logistics team is called up any time they have a mission,” said Damon Green, Mississippi Homeland Security statewide logistics coordinator. “When the task force is deployed the responders only have enough provisions to support themselves for about 12 hours. They don't carry housing or feeding capabilities, so we usually deploy to the scene before they arrive."
The items on display on Wednesday included tents, boats, trucks, a command unit, trailers, transport vehicles, a dining hall, a 26-foot mobile kitchen and a tent that can comfortably sleep up to 10 people.
That’s just a smattering of the items in the task force’s $1.6 million stockpile, and more is on the way.
Right now, the task force can comfortably feed, shower and house 250 first responders in 30 fan-cooled tents.
Pike County Civil Defense Director Richard Coghlan said two grants worth a combined $600,000 will allow the purchase of equipment to house responders in heated and air conditioned climate-controlled tents.
It doesn’t sound like much, but in a rescue mission, the little things can make all the difference, and the task force’s role is crucial.
The unit was first called into action in April after a tornado razed several parts of Yazoo City and killed 10 people.
“They sent us in to help with that mission, and they instantly had 50 trained searchers on the ground going house-to-house, neighborhood to neighborhood, searching for victims of casualties,” Coghlan said. “They did not have to worry about anything except for the search mission. We had their back on food, shelter, shower — everything else.”
The unit also assisted with the annual bike rally in Sturgis, Miss., in August.
Green said the importance of meeting basic needs during a rescue operation was evident when Hurricane Katrina wreaked its havoc in August 2005.
“We found out during Hurricane Katrina that if you’re working guys on (Meals, Ready-to-Eat), and they’re having to not take a shower for three or four days and not getting any sleep, they don’t last very long,” Green said. “As long as you feed them, give them a shower and give them a good place to sleep, they’ll fight forever.”
The kitchen can cook up to 900 hot meals a day. The menu, created by a state dietician, provides responders with a proper calorie intake and nutrition to turn 12-hour search and rescue missions into round-the-clock affairs.
“Once they come in, we don’t want them to worry about anything other than coming in and getting a good rest and good bite to eat and a warm shower and get in the bed and get rest,” Green said. “It takes you from a 36-hour operational window to probably 14 days.”
Mississippi Homeland Security Deputy Director Byron Thompson praised the group’s efforts.
“The logistics group helps us quickly and efficiently set up for operations, both for the rescue as well as the care and feeding,” Thompson said. “They’ve done an amazing job.”
Other states are taking notice.
Representatives from Oklahoma, Louisiana, North Carolina and others have expressed interest in creating similar task forces to aid in rescue missions.
Most other states, Green said, contract basic needs services out, quadrupling their costs in the process.
“From what we know, this is the only state-managed, state-owned logistics capability,” Green said. “We’re setting the standard.”
